Was Aleister Crowley really as bad as depicted?

Zezina

Aleister Crowley certainly was a big-time rebel of his day, and clearly enjoyed the attention that derived from his reputation as 'the wickedest man in the world'.

But was he really THAT bad?

Or was Crowley an intellectual genius with time, and as a young man, a lot of money on his hands, who questioned and rebelled against the established beliefs of the Victorian society into which he was born?

There is a website by one David J. Stewart who specifically accuses Crowley of child sacrifice, and Benjamin Franklin and Crowley, along with McCartney and Lennon of being Satanists. For some reason this website manages to remain near the top in any Google search of Crowley's name.

If Crowley really was into child sacrifice, then that is truly vile. But is that story truth or rumour, and how reliable is David J. Stewart?

Was sacrifice incorporated into Crowley's rituals, and were Golden Dawn members also guilty of such practices? Or was it all blown terribly out of proportion?

My real interest is in Lady Frieda Harris, about whom I'm currently writing a piece on my little blog. Frieda was clearly adventurous, being the one who persuaded Crowley that the design of his Tarot deck should not be traditional. I'm told she was sufficiently adventurous that in 1900, aged 23, she walked the Milford Track in the South Island of New Zealand wearing a long skirt.

However I find it difficult to believe that Frieda would have willingly worked on the paintings for Thoth Tarot with Aleister Crowley, when they were both around sixty years old, or that Clifford Bax would have arranged their introduction, if Crowley had been seriously taken to be truly evil.

Does anyone here really know the facts about how bad, or how not bad, Crowley was?

*Z*
 

The crowned one

I saw a documentary that painted him in quite a positive light. I will try to find the name of that well done documentary and post it here later. It spent some time going over his child hood, life changing moments, his will to help people, at least in his earlier days... and a few failed rituals that lead to some of his reputation...

Showmanship, like a wrestle, I think was what he did. The persona was not necessarily the man.
 

gregory

No he was not. He liked people to BELIEVE that stuff - it amused him. But I am as sure as one can be that he was not into child sacrifice. I can't be too happy about what he did to animals, but...

And he is one of the very few (IMHO) people in this world who had an absolute faith and lived according to it. It may not have been a faith that everyone would be able to manage - but he really stuck to it. I think he was something of an intellectual genius who was badly misunderstood, and he was also a better poet (at times) than he was given credit for.

That documentary is linked here somewhere, damnit.... It's on youtube.

I know nothing of David Stewart. But you could try some (more ?) reputable sources: Kaczynski (on the dry side, to put it mildly); Sutin, or Churton. I gather the last is the most readable of the three - it is, of course the only one I don't have. :( There is another biography - but Aeon will probably string me up if I mention it, even though I really like it myself (and am NOT shocked by it !)
 

Aeon418

There is another biography - but Aeon will probably string me up if I mention it, even though I really like it myself (and am NOT shocked by it !)
String you up? I will do no such thing. :) Although John Symonds had no qualms when it came to telling tall tales of Crowley stringing up Rose in a wardrobe while he entertained a mistress. Symonds book is entertaining, but not all that informative.
 

Le Fanu

Who on earth is David J Stewart?

I don't for one minute think that Crowley sacrificed children. No proof whatsoever, mind...

But no.
 

Aeon418

I don't for one minute think that Crowley sacrificed children.
The child sacrifice gag is the product of Crowley's OTT sense of humour, oaths that prevented him from explaining himself plainly, and also the laws of the time that would have seen him arrested if he talked about sexual matters in an open and frank way.

In Magick in Theory and Practice chapter 12, Crowley claims that between 1912 and 1928 he sacrificed roughly 150 male children per year. That's a grand total of 2550 baby boys!!! How did he ever get away with it? The mind boggles. :rolleyes: The whole thing is an elaborate blind meant to disguise the fact that Crowley performed repeated acts of sex magick without getting his partner pregnant. The ejaculated semen is the sacrifice.

In the Thoth Tarot this "secret" is represented by Atu XII The Hanged Man.
 

Bhavana

My real interest is in Lady Frieda Harris, about whom I'm currently writing a piece on my little blog. Frieda was clearly adventurous, being the one who persuaded Crowley that the design of his Tarot deck should not be traditional. I'm told she was sufficiently adventurous that in 1900, aged 23, she walked the Milford Track in the South Island of New Zealand wearing a long skirt.


*Z*

I think he just loved the attention and to shock people.

as for the above comment, what is so adventurous about wearing a long skirt in this time period?
 

Zezina

I think he just loved the attention and to shock people.

as for the above comment, what is so adventurous about wearing a long skirt in this time period?

Have you ever walked the Milford Track? I haven't, but know some people who have, and I gather it's quite a test of endurance.

I understand that to 'walk the track' takes 4 days and one hikes for 53 miles, even today.

The issue, I think, is that despite that being the only garment she could wear to go tramping, Frieda still went ahead with the adventure.

*Z*
 

Debra

Here's something interesting apropos Harris's walk, from the ever-lovable Wikipedia:

With Milford Sound never really having an industrial or agricultural future, most visitors and investors from early on decided that tourism was to be the main draw to the sound, and the Milford Track was established to a large degree to provide a tourism function for guided treks.

The track was very famous with women from early on. Some parties consisted of three-quarters females even in the first half of the 20th century.

I walked maybe 100 feet on the Milford Track.

eta: It's 53 km (32 miles).